Peter Riley author page

Peter Riley biography

Peter Riley is a children’s science author and former science teacher. He taught science for 25 years, including 17 years as Head of Science, before becoming a full-time writer in 1996. His first book was published in 1981, and Hachette Children’s Group credits him with more than 200 books for children, students, and teachers.

Riley has written extensively about biology, physics, Earth science, space, materials, and the human body. His children’s nonfiction includes the Ways Into Science, Moving Up with Science, Straight Forward with Science, and Step Into Science series, published by Franklin Watts, part of Hachette Children’s Group. These books combine explanations of scientific concepts with questions, activities, and experiments. He has also written educational resources published by Scholastic.

Riley won the Schoolbook Award for Science in 2000. His Survival Science in the Rainforest was shortlisted for the Junior Aventis Prize for Science Books in 2004, and his educational work received an Educational Resources Award nomination in 2009.

The Step Into Science series covers subjects including electricity, forces and magnets, habitats, light, plants, rocks and soil, sound, and the human body. Step Into Science: Rocks and Soil examines Earth’s structure, volcanoes, fossils, rock formation, and the ways rocks change over time; Franklin Watts published its paperback edition in September 2023.